Though physical space travel is still inaccessible to all but the super-rich, this is becoming less of a barrier in the foreseeable future. With the continuous evolution of space technology, many believe that space tourism costs will drop and slowly but surely make its way into the mainstream. Since the U.S. and China are the two biggest potential markets for space tourism, it is important to plan ahead on designing space trips that can satisfy their different needs and wants.

This research white paper provides several insights. First, Chinese people have a higher intention to engage in space tourism than their American counterparts because the latter perceive space travel to be riskier. A possible strategy to promote space travel in the Western market would be to provide more concrete technological information and to emphasise safety in advertisements and social media to reduce tourists’ risk perceptions. On the other hand, when targeting the Asian market, space travel advertisements could emphasise the fantasy and extraordinary experiences.

Second, when considering the space hotel facilities and services, both American and Chinese tourists in general want to have basic facilities of artificial-gravity pools and spa/massage room services. While American tourists have a higher preference for “outdoor” space tours, Chinese tourists prefer “indoor” activities like watching movies. Space tourism companies may consider to tailor-made services according to their different preferences.

Third, food is an essential part of travel. Based on the survey findings, it is suggested that steak and burgers are “must menu items” for space hotel to satisfy both American and Chinese tourists. Hotpot is the most popular menu item for Chinese tourists, I highly recommend future space hotels to include this to shape Chinese tourists’ memories.

Forth, the immersive technology of the metaverse enables users to engage in virtual space travel in anytime and anywhere. Space tourism companies would also consider developing virtual space travel as one of their marketing strategies because my survey finding shows that virtual space tour will increase tourists’ interests in physical space visit.

In addition to space hotel services and food, it would be interesting for space tourism companies to explore how to apply robots to serve tourists in the near future. Robots are usually adopted to help astronauts to investigate and complete dangerous and risky space missions. In fact, robots can also serve as a companion role for humans in space. For example, Japan sent Kirobo — the first humanoid robot astronaut to complete space mission on the International Space Station in 2013. Kirobo is approximately 34 cm tall, 18 cm wide and 15 cm deep with a child-like appearance. It can stabilise itself in zero-gravity conditions and speak in an uncannily natural manner. It can do stress-relieving facial expressions and words to comfort human astronauts and reduce their stresses and loneliness.

Since the cost of sending a robot to space is much cheaper than sending a human (e.g., they can be left out in space without returning to Earth), it is cost effective to adopt humanoid robots to serve tourists in space hotel.  My research about consumer reactions to service robots (Friendly or Competent? The Effects of Perception of Robot Appearance and Service Context on Usage Intention) suggests that, in the hospitality and tourism context, customers in general prefer to interact with humanoid robots than non-humanoid robots, and they are more willing to use friendly-looking service robots (e.g., child-like) when they are looking for suggestions such as menu items to try, specific things to see. However, they prefer to use professional and competent-looking service robots (e.g., adult-like) when seeking instructions related to tax refunds or travel insurance. These research findings on Earth provide practical insights for robot adoption in space hotels. For example, space hotel could use child-like humanoid robots to greet guests and increase their satisfaction.

Space tourism remains in its nascent phase, but traveling to outer space may be as easy as taking a flight to Europe in the future. At CUHK Business School, we look forward to exploring the latest development in space tourism, and how the hospitality and tourism industry can better seize these emerging opportunities.

In the past, most space food was like camping food: freeze-dried for being easy and safe to store, prepare and eat in space environment. It had specific requirements of providing balanced nutrition for astronauts working in space and very limited choices were available for them to choose. Note that space food actually plays a critical role in comforting astronauts (e.g., a reminder of home) and improving their mental wellbeing in space missions. Therefore, nowadays, astronauts have a wide menu of items to choose from, such as fruit salad, juices, pizza, cake etc. For example, the Shenzhou-14 taikonauts were provided mooncakes by the ground team to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival (mooncake festival) for the first time ever in space last year.  Because of the piece of mooncake in space, they felt full of love and were motivated to complete their missions.

What about space tourists? Space activities and food are essential in space travelling experience and can shape tourists’ journey and define their memories. Therefore, in the study titled An Exploratory Study on Consumer Preference for Space Travel, Space Hotel Services and Space Food, we also invited respondents to list out their top five most preferred space hotel services and the top five most preferred space food.

Among the top five most preferred space hotel services, both American and Chinese respondents mentioned “Food service,” “Swimming pool,” and “Spa/Massage.” Note that American respondents reported “Space tours” as one of their top five most preferred space hotel services, whereas Chinese respondents did not. Chinese respondents reported “Cinema” as one of their most preferred services.

Interestingly, results showed that the top one most preferred space food for American were “pizza,” whereas Chinese respondents reported “hot pot” but not “rice” or “noodle”. Among the top five, both American and Chinese respondents liked “steak” and “burgers”.

These findings provide insights for what services and foods should companies provide to Chinese and American tourists once reach orbit. For example, both American and Chinese respondents mentioned that they wanted to have zero-gravity indoor activities like swimming and spa/massage at space hotel. Therefore, artificial-gravity pools and spa/massage room would be basic facilities for a space hotel to build. Steak and burgers are also favourite food items for both cultures and should be “must menu items” for space hotel. Interestingly, hotpot is the most preferred menu item for Chinese tourists. It is a dish whereby a heat source placed on the dining table keeps a pot of soup stock simmering, and a variety of ingredients are served beside the pot for the diners to put into the hot stock. It would be great for a luxury space hotel to provide hotpot to shape Chinese tourists’ memories.

Space tourism refers to members of the general public, such as civilians and space tourists, visiting space solely for recreational purposes. It covers spaceflights for various distances: suborbital, orbital, and beyond the Earth’s orbit. For example, Virgin Galactic provides suborbital trips that reaching around 100km altitude and passengers can enjoy several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness and breathtaking views of Earth in space costing US$450,000. In 2022, it already attracted 800 customers signed up for the trips. SpaceX offers even more expensive orbital trips that reaching an altitude of almost 600km and can keep passengers in space for several days costing US$55 million. China is also catching up quickly (with 370 commercial space-related companies set up as of 2021) and it is expected to start suborbital travel in 2025, which costs around 2-3 million yuan (US$285,00-US$427,000).

With the continued advancement of space technology, space exploration has become a key mission for many nations including the U.S. and China. For example, the U.S. plans to return to the moon and establish a lunar colony over the next few years. China also built its Tiangong space station in 2022 and is planning to get to the Moon in 2030. The Chinese State Council pledged to “make the space industry an important part of the nation’s overall development strategy.” The rapid development of space technology will further lower the costs of space tourism and the space tourism market is expected to grow rapidly. The global market for space tourism is estimated to reach US$1.7 billion by 2027, and the U.S. and China are the two biggest potential markets for space tourism. North America is the leading market for space tourism, with a market share of more than 40 percent. Asia-Pacific trails closely behind, with a market share of about 30 percent. The Chinese space tourism industry is forecast to be worth US$401 million by 2027, making it the second largest in the world.

Having civilians travelling to space will be a breakthrough in human cultural development. As space tourism hits mainstream commercialisation, who would be more interested to spend money on enjoying the breath-taking views of Earth in space? Moreover, a luxury space hotel Voyager Station is scheduled open for business in 2027. In order to generate revenue, what activities and foods should space tourism companies provide to tourists once reach orbit? Since space tourism is still expected to remain relatively expensive, what about the masses who are still unable to afford space travel? Is there a way for them to experience space travel in a cheaper fashion? What lessons can companies seeking to develop space tourism learn?

The tremendous amount of socio-economic changes in China since the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up the entire business landscape and created formidable challenges to entrepreneurs. The younger generation of entrepreneurs are now faced with these challenges. At the same time, new opportunities have emerged as many companies and old ways of operation gave way to new startups.

The Gen-Z, or Post-’00s, enjoy much greater career flexibility and options than previous generations thanks to their families’ accumulated wealth, education in prestigious urban universities, and exposure to the global markets and cultures through travels and the Internet. Many choose an entrepreneurial career without dipping their feet in the daily grind of a job.

As they start their own companies, their relatively greater sense of confidence and risk-taking attitude can be highly advantageous. On the other hand, the lack of previous work experience can be a liability. It would be beneficial if a startup company pairs up experienced entrepreneurs with proven track records with younger ones who excel in innovative product ideas. Such a mentorship can be a sound strategy to raise the odds of long-term success.

As our research shows, rural migrants with a university education exhibit a positive risk-taking attitude in their entrepreneurial approach. It can be advantageous for companies to recruit them and leverage their valuable qualities of an entrepreneurial mindset in order to innovate and build  successful, sustainble companies in the long run.

In 2023, changes in the socio-political realm will continue to sweep through China. As we have seen, institutional and environmental changes are intrinsically connected to how companies can maximise their marketisation efforts and their profitability. Entrepreneurs will benefit from being acutely aware of these ongoing changes and adapting their business strategies to them.

As of 2020, the number of rural migrant workers reached 286 million — more than a third of the entire working population in China.

While the majority of migrants provide low-cost labour at factories in industrialised centres like Shenzhen and Dongguan, we have also witnessed a rapid increase in entrepreneurial activities among migrants.

“Our study found that rural migrants who studied in big urban universities are more willing to take risks than their urban counterparts.”

Prof. Willow Wu You

In fact, some of the most famous Chinese entrepreneurs, such as Liu Qiandong, founder of JD.com, and Pony Ma, founder of multinational conglomerate Tencent, hail from rural areas.

The emergence of these “business celebrities” has sparked our interest in how the country’s great urban migration has propelled entrepreneurism to such a high level we witness today.

We decided to look into the factors at play by using the same survey on university alumni from Tsinghua University, Beijing, as in the study reported above. Our second study entitled Regional Migration, Entrepreneurship and University Alumni revealed that Of the 283 business founders in this group, two interesting factors that link urban migration to the rise of entrepreneurism in recent years.

First, we found that urban universities play an important role. Not only do they make higher education accessible to rural migrants, they also provide social support. The university environment nurtures a safe space for migrant students to build new connections in their new homes and reinvent themselves.

We also found that, compared with their urban-born counterparts, rural migrants who attended university in big cities are more likely to set up businesses that were larger. In particular, those who took advantage of science parks and incentive programs tended to create some of the more prominent tech startups in China.

Second, we found that rural migrants who studied in big urban universities are more willing to take risks than their urban counterparts.

Among the non-entrepreneurs of the alumni we surveyed, only 36.1 percent of rural migrants considered entrepreneurship too risky, whereas 45.8 percent of urban dwellers thought it too risky. Among the entrepreneurs, the percentage is 7.4 percent for rural migrants and 19 percent for urban dwellers.

The stronger risk-taking attitude among rural migrants can be explained by the sense of “anonymity” and the resulting freedom they experienced after moving to the big cities. As they find themselves unknown in their new urban community, they are more prone to think outside the box. When they become entrepreneurs, our study finds that they are more willing to take risks as they worry less about the stigma of “losing face” in case of failure than if they were to start a business in their hometown.

In our study, Missing the Forest for the Trees: Prior Entrepreneurial Experience, Role Identity, and Entrepreneurial Creativity, we found that entrepreneurs with no prior experience tend to focus their energy unproportionally in one role, for example the chief product developer.

These creative entrepreneurs often lose sight of other important aspects of running a business, such as market research, which generally helps a business hone in on specific products with marketable features that can sell well and reap in profit.

Our study looked at both the personal attributes as well as mindset and behavior of experienced entrepreneurs, and found that they tend to take on a more balanced and holistic approach by summoning the inventor and businessperson roles in relevant situations.

Compared with novices, experienced entrepreneurs turned out to have the ability of shifting between the role of an inventor and that of a businessperson strategically, so they can see the big picture–or the proverbial forest–rather than the trees.

For example, when pitching a new product to investors, an entrepreneur would play the role of a salesperson. When working in product development, the same person would wear the inventor hat. When the entrepreneur plays the role of a salesperson, their attention would be more focused on profitability and less on the product design. The focus would be on innovation and product features when the same person plays the role of an inventor.

The advantage of having prior business experience becomes more pronounced when entrepreneurs find themselves in stressful situations. Our study confirmed that hypothesis. The business ideas of experienced entrepreneurs were 12.7 percent more creative and 7.7 percent more profitable than those of inexperienced entrepreneurs when both groups were placed in a high-tension situation.

Our findings suggest the benefit of leveraging the holistic capability of experienced entrepreneurs at the start of a new business venture, such as hiring them as mentors. They can guide the less experienced entrepreneurs in seeing the big picture and thus avoid the inherent blind spots in starting a business from scratch.